


A Song of Drabbles

by JeanZedlav



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drabble Collection, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-08-16 19:51:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16501670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeanZedlav/pseuds/JeanZedlav
Summary: Drabbles about ASOIAF.Each chapter is clearly titled with what it's about. Beware Rhaegar bashing.





	1. Modern AU. Rhaegar and Elia break up. Cats.

**Author's Note:**

> Modern AU. Rhaegar and Elia break up. Cats.
> 
> Rhaegar/Elia  
> Rhaegar/Lyanna  
> Rhaenys Targaryen  
> Featuring cats

Elia and Rhaegar are cat people.

When they got married, Rhaegar had a beautiful calico cat, mostly white, with orange and black speckled across his fur like an artist’s paint across canvas. Rhaegar told her that only one in every three thousand calico cats was male, and that his Omen was a very special cat indeed. He had cost enough to be a special cat, as Rhaegar had hand-picked him from a litter back in college.

When Rhaenys started asking for a cat of her own, Elia had happened across a pathetic ball of mud on the street near her office during the few months she was back on her feet between Rhaenys and Aegon. Suitably impressed by the poor thing’s efforts to survive, she brought her home and cleaned her off to reveal a cute black kitten that her daughter had fallen in love with. Rhaegar insisted the cat be taken to the vet thrice, winced at its kitten claws and playful enthusiasm, and carefully locked his studio door every night, but he couldn’t bring himself to deny Rhaenys the kitten either.

She keeps the kitten, but gives Omen to Rhaegar when she puts him out of the house.

Three days later, Ashara sends her a picture of Lyanna Stark cuddling with the cat in her little apartment up North.

Elia doesn’t ask where she got it. She sends it to Doran for the folder of evidence to grant her custody of the children and deletes it from her phone.


	2. Elia divorces Rhaegar when he starts dating Lyanna Stark. Modern AU.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elia divorces Rhaegar when he starts dating Lyanna Stark. Modern AU.
> 
> Rhaegar bashing  
> Elia/Rhaegar  
> Lyanna/Rhaegar  
> suggested Ashara Dayne/Elia Martell

It’s her uncle who tells her.

Lewyn kisses Rhaenys on the cheek and put his hand on Elia’s shoulder. “Rhaegar’s been sleeping with the Stark girl.” He leaves shortly thereafter, and Elia is left to stand alone in the crumbling ruins of the home she and Rhaegar had bought together.

She sits Rhaenys in front of the TV, a rare treat, and slips into the bedroom with her phone. First, she calls Selwyn, and when she explains the circumstances the man promises to be right over, and to take Aegon with him as well as Rhaenys. He’ll arrive within the hour, bundled against the cold, with warm soup to leave with her and an eager Brienne pressed against the window of his van while he collects her children.

Next, she calls her brother. Not Oberyn, because Oberyn would drag all of Rhaegar’s things out of the house, destroy his studio and throw his clothes from the window, set fire to his art in the driveway, but Doran. She catches him in the middle of a meeting with a client, but he promises to drop everything and be over as soon as possible. Doran can’t help carry a dresser, but he’ll sit on her couch and draw up divorce papers while he provides moral support. With him comes Mellario, who pulls off her heels and leaves them beside her husband’s feet, and begins to cart Rhaegar’s art gently from his studio to the garage.

Last of all, Elia calls Ashara. Her best friend listens to it all, and rather than saying ‘I told you so’ she promises to be right over. She arrives before Doran, just after Selwyn has left, with Mina Tyrell and Ynys Yronwood in tow. Not ten minutes later Minisa Tully arrives as well, red hair pulled up and children nowhere to be seen for once. 

Ashara walks up the drive and presses her phone into Elia’s hands. “Here,” she says, “I stole Arthur’s phone and sent these photos to myself. They should help with the paperwork.”

And Elia had thought Arthur was her friend, but looking through the pictures of him and Rhaegar and Lyanna Stark, now she’s not so sure. Elia is a smart woman. When Doran arrives, she’ll have Ashara send him the photos, but right now she wants to throw the phone and the ground and scream. She’s still staring when Ellaria arrives in Oberyn’s car and pulls the phone from her hands to hug her tight. 

They have Ellaria fold Rhaegar’s clothes and put them in suitcases. Elia isn’t confident that anyone else wouldn’t dig the bleach from under the sink and have a field day. Elia’s only been out of the hospital for a week, has not yet recovered from birthing Rhaegar’s son, so Ashara insists she not actually carry anything, but instead tell them what needs to be removed. 

Jynessa and Perros Blackmont carry the heavy things between themselves, desks and easels and dressers. The others load boxes full of paint supplies and books and carries them out to sit in the garage. Last of all, Elia thinks of the harp, and goes to fetch it. Ashara finds her struggling to carry it out the door, and together they cart it into the garage as well. 

It’s around this time that Rhaegar himself arrives. He opens his door and sits in shock for a moment, as Mina helps them lift the harp onto the desk. Elia can feel the tears threaten, and when Ashara reaches for her hand she clings to her friend like a lifeline. Arthur and Jaime follow hesitantly as Rhaegar enters the garage to stare up at his belongings, while Lewyn climbs from the car and stays with it.

“Elia? What’s this?” Her husband asks, when he’s close enough to not have to yell. 

“Your things. I thought you would want them now and not after the divorce.”

“Divorce? Why are we getting divorced?”

Ashara lifts her phone to display a particularly pointed picture of Lyanna and Rhaegar. “Why wouldn’t you be?”

Recognition flickers over Arthur’s face, and he has the grace to look ashamed. Rhaegar reaches for Elia, who pulls back. “Elia, it isn’t what you think. I love you and the children, Lyanna is only-”

“It’s  _Lyanna_  now?” Jynessa asks. “The girl’s barely legal, Rhaegar!”

“I’m not in love with Lyanna!” When he steps closer, Elia moves back only to find herself trapped. Before she can reevaluate her positioning, Ashara is in front of her. 

“Elia doesn’t want you touching her! You thought this was a good idea now? She almost died having Aegon, you idiot! She’s supposed to be on bedrest because too much stress could kill her and you decide to run off with a teenager  _now?_ ”

She’s a head shorter than Rhaegar, but when he tried to crowd around her Arthur speaks up. “Rhaegar, easy, that’s my sister.”

“I just want to talk.”

“Yes, well, Elia does not want to talk to you.” The tension in the room plummets as Doran steps through the door, one hand wrapped around his cane, the other holding paperwork. Ellaria peeks over his shoulder as he carefully maneuvers the stairs. “Here are the divorce papers, give them to your lawyer and have them call Elia’s lawyer. All communications are to go through her lawyer and not to her, as she’s in a delicate state after Aegon’s birth.”

“Elia’s lawyer? Elia is a lawyer…” Rhaegar takes the papers on instinct when Doran pushes them into his chest.

“I’m her lawyer.” Doran says. “Now, I suggest that we go back into the house and allow Rhaegar to collect his belongings and leave peacefully.”

Elia thinks she will cry. She doesn’t. Not when Mellario and Doran offer to watch the kids for the night. Not when Minisa calls her husband and tells him he needs to pick up the kids because she can’t leave her friend. Not when Ashara strips the bed of sheets and puts new ones on so they don’t smell like Rhaegar.  

Near sunset, when most of her friends have left - except Ashara, Elia doesn’t know if Ashara will ever be convinced to leave - the door opens without a knock to reveal Oberyn. His baby daughter in his arms, he steps inside and his gaze meets hers instantly. Ellaria crosses the floor to take the baby as Elia slowly stands, feeling unsteady at the sight of her brother.

“Elia?”

And then the dam breaks. She falls to her knees with a wail, and Oberyn meets her there. He hugs her tight, like he did when they were kids, and holds her as she weeps for the years of her life spent with a man who can cast her away like garbage.  

“What do I tell Rhaenys?” She sobs. “What do I tell  _anyone_?”

“You tell them the truth,” he says, because Oberyn has never shied away from hard truths, “you tell Rhaenys that her father chose to leave and you tell everyone else that he’s a bastard who abandoned his family.”

In the morning, Elia will wake up between Ashara and Oberyn to find that Aerys has left two messages on her phone, both angry nonsense, and that Doran has left one telling her to block Aerys and not reply to anything he sends. Ashara will make breakfast while Oberyn entertains the children in the living room. The doorbell will ring, and Elia will open it to find that Rhaella has sent her orange-and-red flowers with only her name and no explanation whatsoever.

Elia is unbowed, unbent, unbroken, so she takes a breath and sets the flowers on her table. She blocks Aerys, ignores the five texts Rhaegar has sent her, and goes into the kitchen to find apple juice for Rhaenys. When she finds some form of paint in a jar in her refrigerator, she throws it away with more violence than strictly necessary, and almost forgets why she came into the kitchen.

Ashara never leaves.


	3. Elia and Lyanna are both Rhaegar's queens. Daenerys hatches dragons.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elia and Lyanna are both Rhaegar's queens. Daenerys hatches dragons.
> 
> Rhaegar/Elia  
> Rhaegar/Lyanna  
> Dragon centric.

Rhaegar survives Robert's Rebellion (and the subsequent rebellion of the Faith), and takes Lyanna Stark as his queen.

And at six-and-ten Daenerys hatches her dragons.

The black belongs to Daenerys, as he always has, for she is the Prince That Was Promised, the blood of Aerys and Rhaella, who woke dragons from stone, and has come to save the world from darkness.

The green belongs to Rhaenys, the eldest heir of King Rhaegar. A Targaryen who will burn the Others to nothing with fire and spread the blood of her enemies across the snow. A Martell daughter who will never bend the knee to anyone, who will take the throne for herself and rule over the Seven Kingdoms when this is done.

And the last, the white, goes not to Aegon the trueborn heir or Stark-like Jon, not even to Viserys who waits in the wings eagerly. He rejects them fiercely, for dragons are not playthings and if he was older they would be dead. But Viserion curls on Elia’s shoulders and purrs like a cat when she feeds him from her own hands. The delicate Dornish Princess, the dishonored Queen, she will command the last of Daenerys’ children. 

She was, after all, chosen for her Targaryen blood. The blood of Daenerys of Dorne.


	4. Elia Diverts Rhaegar/Lyanna Post Harrenhal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elia/Rhaegar  
> Rhaegar/Cersei  
> Not for Robert fans  
> Not for Rhaegar fans

Rhaegar returns late on the second-to-last day of the tourney, after he has called off the search for the Knight of the Laughing Tree. He looks over Rhaenys asleep in the bed beside her, then raises his gaze to Elia’s, curled beneath the heavy northern blankets as she is. “How is the babe?”

“We are well.” Elia knows that Rhaegar worries for her, although perhaps not in the way he should. He worries for the child in her belly, not for her health.

After Rhaenys’ birth, the maesters had urged him to wait at least a year before trying for another babe. While Rhaegar had rambled on about old prophecies, Elia had acquiesced to his wishes for another reason. She needed a son to secure her place as his wife. A daughter could be set aside, but even Aerys could not put aside a son without a war, no matter how Dornish he might be. She hoped that the babe she carried now was that son. However, the maester had also warned her that every birth in such a short time would make it less likely for her to have another babe.

“Will you join us?” 

Rhaegar looks back down to Rhaenys. “No, I will return to my own tent. I fear I must be up early tomorrow. Sleep well.”

~oOo~

Elia is not wrong about her husband’s concerns. She cannot speak for what happens that night, but come morning Rhaegar wins the Tourney of Harrenhal and crowns Lyanna of House Stark as his Queen of Love and Beauty. 

The cheering of the crowd stifles. It is appropriate for an unmarried man to crown a maiden he wishes to marry, but a married man may only crown his family, a mother, sister, or daughter. Perhaps a cousin he grew up with. One of Lyanna Stark’s brothers bristles in his seat, and their father puts a hand on his shoulder. The other brother shrinks back. The king laughs, and Rhaella casts a sympathetic look at Elia. But Elia is not a meek and mild Targaryen bride. She collects her skirts around herself and stands, exiting the stands to retreat back to her tent, her ladies trailing in her wake. 

Behind her, Lady Stark lifts the crown of blue roses from her lap and places it upon her head. The girl could not possibly bear him more children in the same time that Elia herself had. She was eight years younger than Rhaegar, and already betrothed besides. If the babe she carried was a boy, Elia’s position would be safe. Not even Aerys Targaryen would cast aside a male heir for an unproven bride. Even a non-Dornish bride.

Elia returns to her tent and sends Ashara to fetch Lord Rickard Stark. The man is every bit the apologetic lord. He bows low, calls her  _ Your Grace _ , and Elia must bid him rise before he will stand before her. Even then, the man will not meet her eyes.

“I am certain you saw what happened between my husband and your daughter, Lord Stark.” 

“Yes, Your Grace. Forgive me, my daughter had nothing to do with it. She only did not want to insult the Crown Prince.” 

“I understand completely, Lord Stark. Such things can be dangerous. But you must know that the child I carry is to be the next king, and if your daughter was to be pursued by my husband she could never be his wife. It would be best for all of us if her marriage was to take place as soon as possible. As quietly as possible.”

He looked up then, and their gazes met for a moment. “I believe I will invite Lord Baratheon to Winterfell as an apology to him for this. To ensure he is aware that these actions were not my desire.”

“Thank you, Lord Stark. I am glad we have come to an understanding.”

~oOo~

When news came that Lyanna Stark was the new Lady of Storm’s End Rhaegar said nothing. Elia was pleased for a week, until Ashara pointed out that the girl was likely as misreable to wed the Baratheon Lord as Elia had been to be sent from Dorne. Elia did not regret her decisions, but she hoped that the girl might find peace. 

Oberyn comes to visit for the babe’s birth, having taken as much offense to Rhaegar’s actions at the Tourney as Elia herself had. Mere days after the birth of the babe, Rhaegar vanishes from Kings Landing. Elia is hardly even aware of this, so exhausted is she from the birth. Hardly a month later the king is dead.

There are whispers of poison, but a heavily-pregnant Ashara sends word to Lord Tywin, and soon thereafter Maester Pycelle confirms the king suffered from a heart attack. Lord Tywin is soon on his way to fetch his son, who will be released from the Kingsguard. 

By the time Elia is awake enough to properly rule, Rhaella’s shock from losing her husband has passed. She wears the black of mourning, but the boy she loved as a brother died many years ago. The last time Aerys forced himself on her had left her with child, and although she feared she would lose the babe as she had so many others she was pleased as the prospect of another child. 

Rhaegar returns to a family and kingdom much changed. He is crowned King of the Seven Kingdoms, but it is Elia who does most of the day-to-day ruling while he buries himself in his books. Some days, Elia wonders if he would not have been better to have been a second son, who could have joined the Citadel.

Rhaella is very weak from the abuse at the hands of her late husband, but Elia brings in the best maesters and mid-wife’s she can find in Westeros, and her good-mothers lives through the birth of her last child. If only barely. The lack of Aerys’ ongoing abuse helps.

In Elia’s honor, she names her daughter Daenerys.

~oOo~

Rhaegar names Tywin Hand of the King, and invites him to bring his daughter to court. Within six months Elia knows that he has taken the girl as mistress, and while she does not find Cersei Lannister threatening, she knows better than to underestimate her father. Elia sets a guard on Aegon at all times.

In court, Cersei Lannister is the picture of kindness, but on the few occasions Elia must interact with her outside of formal settings the girl’s words are cutting. “Your Dornish colors are always so bright, Your Grace. You always look so comfortable in court.” The ladies of the Westerlands titter behind her.

Elia smiles like the sun. “Thank you, Lady Lannister. Princess Rhaenys loves red as well, she’s so lovely in her father’s colors.”

Ashara proves herself more useful than the northern women, even fresh from the birthing bed as she is. “She’s a dragon, my queen. They are all beautiful, just look at her eyes!”

It is around this time, a year after Aegon’s birth, that Robert Baratheon suddenly dies. Lady Lyanna had fallen pregnant quickly after her marriage, and her first child had been a boy named Jon Baratheon, so she was left to rule as Lady of Storm’s End. Elia suspected that her lord husband’s death had not been so sudden to her, but could not blame her. She had heard tales of the bruises on Lady Lyanna’s face.

~oOo~

Not two years after Robert Baratheon’s death, Cersei Lannister gives birth.

Rhaegar waits outside of the room, anxious and impatient. Cersei’s birthing is easier than Elia’s, and only takes hours. Elia has pretended to be ignorant of all of this, but she cannot help the smile that comes when Ashara tells her that it is a boy and Rhaegar has abandoned Cersei’s bedside.

Elia goes to Rhaegar weeping. He sits in his study, alone, without his harp or books for once. When Elia enters the room he startles at the sight of her. “Rhaegar, what have you done? They say that Cersei Lannister has born a son with blonde hair and purple eyes.”

“She has.”

“Why? Why would you do such a thing? Is Aegon not enough for you?”

“He is! You are! But there must be three! A Visenya to match Rhaenys and Aegon! Forgive me, Elia, I had not meant- I had not expected a boy.”

“He must be sent away. He, and the Lannister woman as well. Name him a bastard, marry her to one of your bannermen. We cannot allow him to become another Blackfyre.”

“I will send the boy away, as you say, but I meant to keep Cersei until I have a daughter-”

“You meant to use her and then cast her aside? What do you think her father will say of that? Lord Tywin will be furious when you send the boy away rather than making his daughter queen. Better to rid yourself of both of them now.”

“I- I will speak to Lord Tywin. Perhaps the boy can be sent to the Faith…”

“Send the boy to Dorne. My brother can raise him in the Water Gardens until he is of an age to be sent to the Faith or the Citadel.” 

“Yes, Dorne, Lord Tywin will not be able to reach him there.” Rhaegar muses, drifting into thought.

“He will be safe there, but, Rhaegar, my brother must be rewarded for this service. His daughter is of an age with Viserys, perhaps a marriage could be made.”

Rhaegar hesitates, “I had meant to marry Viserys to Daenerys.”

Elia draws herself up. She is short, but taller than Rhaegar sitting. “Rhaella has said she does not want them to be married. Do you mean to defy her wishes and force her to allow them into a marriage that brought her so much misery?”

“It is tradition to-”

“Is it also tradition to brutalize and rape one’s wife, as Aerys did to your mother? They are her children, she nearly died birthing them, and she should be permitted to decide their marriages!”

The silence lingers for a moment, and then Rhaegar looks away. “So they are. Very well. I will speak with mother. Viserys would do well in Dorne, and one day he would be consort to the Princess. And Daenerys is of an age with Jon Baratheon. Perhaps I will speak with Lyanna about a match.”

Elia sets her jaw and says nothing about the slight. It is better than marrying Daenerys to Viserys, and she will take what she can get from him. Within two months, the matches have been made for the children. 

When Rhaegar proposes his plan to Cersei she becomes furious. In return, Rhaegar arranges for her to be wed to Jon Connington, and her son will stay with her for a year before Joffrey Waters is sent to Dorne. At the age of seven, he will be sent to the Citadel. Cersei will have three more children, a boy and two girls, all blond, with green eyes.Lord Tywin rages, but at last he takes his son and leaves for the Rock, where Jaime will wed a woman of the Westerlands who will bear a single daughter. 

Rhaegar mourns the lost alliance. Elia keeps to herself that if he had not lain with Cersei and simply allowed Lord Tywin to return to the Rock, he would not be angry his golden daughter was spoiled.

~oOo~

Some two years after Rhaegar’s first folly, he returns from the Reach with a number of Reacher lords added to his party. Elia, for the first time in years, meets him in the courtyard. After he greets the children, he stands to gently embrace her, and she speaks softly in his ear. “Husband, I am with child.”

Rhaegar pulls back to stare at her, a smile blooming over his face. “That’s wonderful!”

Elia will birth a silver-haired, dark eyed girl that he dubs Visenya. While Rhaenys is wild and fierce, always joining her brother in the training yard and racing her cousins on horseback, but Visenya is the perfect lady, the lover of music and brave knights. 

Three months afterwards Delena Florent births a babe as well. He never says anything of it to Elia. He simply hands the child over to one of his closest friends, and has the girl married to a household knight. In time, this child will be sent to the Faith. Ashara keeps her informed on the child’s progress, and it seems that Lady Delena, unlike her Lannister counterpart, is less upset about the loss of the Rhaegar than of the child.

~oOo~

It does not take long for Rhaegar to begin talking of marriages. However, he will not be detered from marrying brother to sister this time. He means to marry Aegon to both of his sisters, and so Elia writes to Oberyn. Without question, he rides to Kings Landing. Not only will the realm disapprove, the Faith will rebel. The older children are happy to see their uncle, and he visits the new baby for a time. When he returns to Dorne, he leaves something behind.

Elia invites her husband into her rooms. She pours wine for both of them, and sleeps beside him, and in the morning he leaves. Three weeks later, he is dead. She dresses in black, and holds Rhaella while she cries, and writes to Doran to plead for him to write for Kings Landing as quickly as he dares.

Then she pens three more letters. First to Lord Mace Tyrell, to arrange a marriage between his daughter and Aegon, then to Lord Rickard Stark and Lord Jon Arryn, to offer her daughters to their grandsons.

~oOo~

Viserys is the oldest of the children, and so his marriage is first. He and Arianne marry in Dorne in a ceremony that Elia had always dreamed would be her own. Dickon Manwoody is there, and Elia dances with him twice. When she was a girl, and he fostered in Sunspear, Elia had allowed herself to imagine marrying her cousin. Now she was a woman grown, she knew that her mother would never have allowed such a marriage, no matter how happy it would have made her. When they leave, Rhaella and Daenerys remain.

Rhaenys’ marriage is next. At the age of eighteen she married Bennard Stark, the eldest son of Brandon Stark and Catelyn Tully, in the sight of the Old Gods and the New. Elia travels to Winterfell to watch them wed in the godswood there. They would eventually have six children, double Viserys’ three, and one of Robb’s sisters would marry to Dorne.

Not a year later, Aegon marries Margaery Tyrell in the Sept of Baelor. Margaery was pregnant inside of a year, and she would have twin girl, and then two sons. Her younger son would take Jaime Lannister’s daughter for a bride, while the older boy would marry Baratheon daughter.

Two years afterward, Daenerys married Jon Baratheon at Storm’s End. Lady Lyanna had since married Stannis, Robert’s brother, and had two more children, Shireen and Edric. When Elia first lay eyes on Jon, she stopped to stare. She was not certain if Rhaegar had lain with Lyanna at the tourney, or if the boy simply looked like Robert’s Targaryen ancestors. Nor did she want to know. Elia had come to see her good-sister married, and so she did. Daenerys would have three children, the eldest of whom would marry a distant Hightower cousin, and the youngest of whom would marry Aegon’s oldest son.

Seemingly satisfied that Elia and Lyanna had solved their differences, Ashara took the opportunity to take up with Ned Stark at his nephew’s marriage. No sooner had she done so than she was pregnant, married, and bidding Elia to have Aegon legitimize Allyria as Ned’s daughter. She moved her new husband into the rooms given to her as the Master of Whispers and charged him with raising the children. 

Visenya’s marriage is last. She is wed to Elbert Arryn’s oldest son, and will quickly birth seven children, reviving House Arryn. One of her children will later marry Sansa Stark’s eldest son, and become heir to House Highgarden.

Elia, now Queen Mother, invites her cousin to Kings Landing, and enjoys the peace she bought for her children.


End file.
